On the afternoon of February 20, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference. A reporter asked: US President Trump signed a memorandum on the 13th, requiring relevant departments to determine "reciprocal tariffs" with each foreign trading partner. What is the spokesperson’s comment on this and is China ready to respond?
The spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong, said that China has noticed that the US has recently announced that it has implemented so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on all trading partners, and China is deeply concerned about this. International trade is based on the resource endowments and comparative advantages of each country, effectively promotes global economic development and enhances the well-being of people in all countries. The US believes that it has suffered a loss in international trade and needs to increase tariffs on all trading partners through so-called "reciprocal tariffs". This practice not only violates the rules of the WTO, but also ignores the balance of interests reached by the multilateral trading system in the past 80 years, and the fact that the United States has long gained a lot of benefits from international trade. It is typical of unilateralism and protectionism.
Once the "reciprocal tariff" approach proposed by the US will be implemented, it will inevitably seriously undermine the multilateral trading system based on rules such as most-favored-nation treatment, causing an impact on the global supply chain, and bringing huge uncertainty to normal international economic and trade activities. Many countries have clearly expressed their opposition. China urges the US not to wield the "tariff stick" at will, and use tariffs as tools and coerce them everywhere. There is no way out for the tariff war, and there will be no winners. The US should correct its wrong practices and work with other countries to find solutions to the problem through equal consultation.
